Microsoft grabs 200 acres for a new data center in Washington

Microsoft has made a deal to buy a huge chunk of land in Quincy, Washington. The plot is 200 acres of land and word is that Microsoft plans to use the swath of land to build a new data center. Microsoft already owns 75 acres of land in the same city.

The deal is reportedly valued at $11 million and is the biggest land deal in the history of Quincy. Quincy, Washington is a city that has plenty of large tech firms in the area. The city also has data centers for Dell, Intuit, Yahoo, and other firms.

One reason that Quincy is popular for big data centers is because the power for the city comes from hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. That green power allows the data centers to avoid power generated by means that pollute the environment.

The town also has a blazing fast web connection. Fiber provider Level 3 spent big money to strengthen the connection to the internet backbone in the area giving the data centers high connectivity speeds. Microsoft's land deal is expected to close in January.